Online photo-sharing is a great resource for teachers. Here's a link to Common Cause's Videos about Photosharing.Since you know how much digital images and visualization contribute to 21st Century learning, you may want to make use of the many resources found on one of the biggest picture sharing sites on the Internet, Flickr. There are others--PhotoBucket, Smug Mug, Picasa or even Facebook. but Flickr stands out because there are lots of "toys" and other tools that make using it even more productive. Flickr is a site that is used by many people to share photos. If you took a trip somewhere, others might want to view your photos. If your family lives in other places, you might want to share your photos with them. Here is a website that gives you a little bit of explanation about setting up Flickr. You may or may not want to use it to share your own photos but if you want to include pictures of your class in your blog or want your students to respond to pictures you might post on your blog, you may want to set up an account for yourself. One of the important things that you can do here is share to a group privately; this means you could set up a group for your parents or your class and keep the pictures private. Another great thing about Flickr is that many photos shared there are in the public domain. That means that you and your students may use an unlimited number of them in projects without worrying about plagiarizing or using pictures that are copyrighted or meant only to be used if they have been purchased. Copyright concerns are real, especially if you are going to post something on the web--it is assumed that unless otherwise stated, anything published on the web is copyrighted. It is important to teach digital natives that just because something seems "free for the taking" , it is right to do so. This is true about text, pictures, and music. Copyrighted music may be used if it is limited to 30 seconds. There is a movement among educators and others to place things in "Creative Commons". Here is a video I just found about Creative Commons. It is a bit long but does a nice job of explaining things. .
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Things in "Creative Commons" are meant to be shared and used by others. If you notice, you will see a Creative Commons license at the bottom of this wiki and anything written on this is donated to others to be used and modified. If you use it with your students, they should give credit to the person who created the work. If you want to share information about it with them, here is a video.====
Here is a tutorial about using Flickr and some ideas about how you might use it in the classroom.
Because of the "tags" or labels, one of the most valuable tools for you to use is the search feature. Flickr itself has a search feature but the fact that it is so easy to add tags and share is also one of the drawbacks for use with students. There are photos on Flickr that are not suitable for Lower or Middle Division students; however I did more research and Flickr does have a safe search feature built in.I learned that the pictures are reviewed by humans and some are blocked or restricted. I used to recommend Compfight as a safe search tool but it has added another layer of complexity that make me hesitant to recommend it for younger students. Another fun search tool is PictureSandboxthat searches many user photo spots at once. If you click on the picture, it says if it is in creative commons or not. It is not a safe search tool though. However, if you want to try it with some of the terms that you want your students to use and restrict them to those terms, it could be used.
There is a whole part of Flickr devoted just to history and photos that have to do with it. It is called Smarthistory. Not all of these links will apply to you but you might get a sense of what other people have done with Flickr by exploring this site.. And here is a neat visual dictionary, You might try it for math terms.
Flickr by itself is a great resource but there are lots of tools for Flickr. Lots of them are found at Big Huge Labs. Some classes used the Trading Cards at various times. They are adaptable as character cards for books, vocabulary cards, and this site has more ideas. The movie posters could be used for Book Reviews--combining such poster with VoiceThread--I know you will be able to think of many ways to use these at every level. Some new additions to this set of tools is the one called Guess the Title--it's not real easy but if you read my second blog post, you might want to use it to teach some of the creative traits. Here's another activity that would help students with vocabulary or tags or thinking about synonyms. It's called Memry and is like a concentration game with photos. with some of the toys; using photos for character education and making motivational posters are just the beginning. Here's a tutorial about making the postersYou can create cartoons and captions using Flickr photos at Bubblr! You or your students can Spell with Flickr. I created a tutorial about that for you. There are lots more options; try them if you want to increase the points for this lesson; just be sure to document your time. Check them out here.
Here is information about making your own Flickr account. Creating a Flickr photostream for yourself is optional but you may want to try using it. I think it would be a great way for you to share photos that your kids use to create personal blogs or class newsletters (Marie that's for you). If you set up the account and use a class name and a password that they can all have, you are set. You will have to set up a Yahoo account to do this; just use your class login for Gail's class and their password.
1 5 points Spend some time exploring Flickr and Flickr tools. Document this by telling what tools you tried in your blog.
1.5 points--Talk about ways you might use some of the tools in your classroom on your blog or post some of the things you created using the Snip tool. Here's how to add photos to your blog.
Online photo-sharing is a great resource for teachers. Here's a link to Common Cause's Videos about Photosharing.Since you know how much digital images and visualization contribute to 21st Century learning, you may want to make use of the many resources found on one of the biggest picture sharing sites on the Internet, Flickr. There are others--PhotoBucket, Smug Mug, Picasa or even Facebook. but Flickr stands out because there are lots of "toys" and other tools that make using it even more productive. Flickr is a site that is used by many people to share photos. If you took a trip somewhere, others might want to view your photos. If your family lives in other places, you might want to share your photos with them. Here is a website that gives you a little bit of explanation about setting up Flickr. You may or may not want to use it to share your own photos but if you want to include pictures of your class in your blog or want your students to respond to pictures you might post on your blog, you may want to set up an account for yourself. One of the important things that you can do here is share to a group privately; this means you could set up a group for your parents or your class and keep the pictures private. Another great thing about Flickr is that many photos shared there are in the public domain. That means that you and your students may use an unlimited number of them in projects without worrying about plagiarizing or using pictures that are copyrighted or meant only to be used if they have been purchased. Copyright concerns are real, especially if you are going to post something on the web--it is assumed that unless otherwise stated, anything published on the web is copyrighted. It is important to teach digital natives that just because something seems "free for the taking" , it is right to do so. This is true about text, pictures, and music. Copyrighted music may be used if it is limited to 30 seconds. There is a movement among educators and others to place things in "Creative Commons". Here is a video I just found about Creative Commons. It is a bit long but does a nice job of explaining things. .
====Things in "Creative Commons" are meant to be shared and used by others. If you notice, you will see a Creative Commons license at the bottom of this wiki and anything written on this is donated to others to be used and modified. If you use it with your students, they should give credit to the person who created the work. If you want to share information about it with them, here is a video.====
Here is a tutorial about using Flickr and some ideas about how you might use it in the classroom.
Because of the "tags" or labels, one of the most valuable tools for you to use is the search feature. Flickr itself has a search feature but the fact that it is so easy to add tags and share is also one of the drawbacks for use with students. There are photos on Flickr that are not suitable for Lower or Middle Division students; however I did more research and Flickr does have a safe search feature built in.I learned that the pictures are reviewed by humans and some are blocked or restricted. I used to recommend Compfight as a safe search tool but it has added another layer of complexity that make me hesitant to recommend it for younger students. Another fun search tool is PictureSandboxthat searches many user photo spots at once. If you click on the picture, it says if it is in creative commons or not. It is not a safe search tool though. However, if you want to try it with some of the terms that you want your students to use and restrict them to those terms, it could be used.
There is a whole part of Flickr devoted just to history and photos that have to do with it. It is called Smarthistory. Not all of these links will apply to you but you might get a sense of what other people have done with Flickr by exploring this site.. And here is a neat visual dictionary, You might try it for math terms.
Flickr by itself is a great resource but there are lots of tools for Flickr. Lots of them are found at Big Huge Labs. Some classes used the Trading Cards at various times. They are adaptable as character cards for books, vocabulary cards, and this site has more ideas. The movie posters could be used for Book Reviews--combining such poster with VoiceThread--I know you will be able to think of many ways to use these at every level. Some new additions to this set of tools is the one called Guess the Title--it's not real easy but if you read my second blog post, you might want to use it to teach some of the creative traits. Here's another activity that would help students with vocabulary or tags or thinking about synonyms. It's called Memry and is like a concentration game with photos. with some of the toys; using photos for character education and making motivational posters are just the beginning. Here's a tutorial about making the postersYou can create cartoons and captions using Flickr photos at Bubblr! You or your students can Spell with Flickr. I created a tutorial about that for you. There are lots more options; try them if you want to increase the points for this lesson; just be sure to document your time. Check them out here.
Here is information about making your own Flickr account. Creating a Flickr photostream for yourself is optional but you may want to try using it. I think it would be a great way for you to share photos that your kids use to create personal blogs or class newsletters (Marie that's for you). If you set up the account and use a class name and a password that they can all have, you are set. You will have to set up a Yahoo account to do this; just use your class login for Gail's class and their password.
1 5 points Spend some time exploring Flickr and Flickr tools. Document this by telling what tools you tried in your blog.
1.5 points--Talk about ways you might use some of the tools in your classroom on your blog or post some of the things you created using the Snip tool. Here's how to add photos to your blog.